For the first time in a long time I am really excited about something I am writing … well, rewriting. It’s not the third book in the wolf stories (sorry) although that is about 75% done. All the rewriting for it is 95% done then I just have to merge the old with the new. It’s coming, I promise not to abandon them.

No, this story is something I wrote YEARS ago, it was one of the first full length stories I wrote that was not based on a previously established character AKA Fan Fiction.

I’m not sure why I put it to the side, I just did and I brought it out every now and then to reread it. It’s a contemporary story in the vein of a Blaze book. So to say it’s sexy is an understatement. When I hit a wall with the wolf book, I decided to take this one out again. I realized it just needed a little (okay a LOT) of work, but it was 99.5% done and I could probably have it done in a couple of months if I stuck to it.

I went in with guns blazing and my red pen went to work. There is a LOT of red in it, but I think I’ve tightened the story up and it is in a place that I’m really happy with.

SO! Now on to inspiration.

The hero in this story is Native American, Sioux to be exact. Now, anyone who knows me knows that I love Native American Men. Adam Beach, Michael Greyeyes, Jay Tavare, Rick Mora and HELLO Gregg Rainwater who was my first high school TV Crush (He was on the Young Riders TV series with Josh Brolin and Stephen Baldwin – I’ll wait while you do a quick google search ………. done? Good)

Gregg was probably my first inspiration for the character of Chayton Baker, he was the hero in ALL my fan fiction so of course for my first full length story he would feature front and center.

However then I saw this mini-series on TBS called Into the West, and there I saw the PERFECT guy to embody the character. At first I thought it would be Jay Tavare (who played Vega in Street Fighter – a movie Gregg Rainwater was in as well), but as I continued to watch I kept going back to one person, the young man playing Lakota warrior Dog Star.

The young man? Michael Spears.

Michael has appeared in Dances with Wolves, Skins and Longmire as well as several other movies, but it was here in this mini-series as I watched the strength and vulnerability of his character that I thought he was the character I was writing.

So without further ado, here for your viewing pleasure is Mr. Michael Spears.

*I do not own any of these pictures, the copyright is exclusive to their photographers*